Research Data and the Future of Software Engineering

transcript

Amir AryaniAustralian National Data Service (ANDS)

Heinz SchmidtRMIT University

Amir Aryani (twitter: @amir_at_ands)2

ANDS is enabling transformation of Australian research data

• Funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) with the mission of transforming Australia’s research data.

• Since 2009 ANDS has spent $80 million building skills, knowledge, services and community around data.

About eResearch@RMIT

• established to facilitate IT systems, software and services support to researchers with high-performance computing (HPC), high-bandwidth network and data-intensive collaborative spaces needs such as– Research Data Capture and Curation,– Campus Cloud,– Data Visualization, …

Agenda

Fourth Paradigm• Thousand years ago:

science was empirical– describing natural phenomena

• Last few hundred years: theoretical branch – using models, generalizations

• Last few decades:a computational branch– simulating complex phenomena

• Today :data exploration (eScience) – unify theory, experiment, and simulation

Ref: Tony Hey, Stewart Tansley, and Kristin Tolle, The fourth paradigm: data-intensive scientific discovery, Microsoft Research, 2009

Jim Gray on eScience: A Transformed Scientific Method

Presented to Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, the report "Riding the Wave: How Europe can gain from the rising tide of scientific data" is the result of six months of intense brainstorming and consultations by the High-Level Group on Scientific Data.

Riding the Wave

Ref: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=6204

Investigators are expected to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the primary data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants.

Ref: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp

Making research data widely available to the research community in a timely and responsible manner ensures that these data can be verified, built upon and used to advance knowledge…

Ref:http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/Policy-and-position-statements/WTX035043.htm

Ref: http://www.arc.gov.au/pdf/LIEF15/LE15%20Funding%20Rules.pdf

“Researchers and institutions have an

obligation to care for and maintain research

data in accordance with the Australian Code

for the Responsible Conduct of Research

(2007). The ARC considers data management

planning an important part of the responsible

conduct of research and strongly encourages

the depositing of data arising from a Project

in an appropriate publicly accessible subject

and/or institutional repository".

477 academics and policymakers from around the globe gathered for the Research Data Alliance’s third plenary meeting in Dublin (March 2014)

Research Data Alliance

Data sharing and open access

Research Data

“The data, records, files or other evidence, irrespective of their content or form (e.g. in print, digital, physical or other forms), that

comprise research observations, findings or outcomes, including primary materials and

analysed data.”Monash University Research Data Policy

ANDS Guideline:ands.org.au/guides/what-is-research-data.html

Research Data (a simple perspective)

Why share your data?

• Credibility• Transparency• Collaboration– Better return on

investment– New research

opportunities• Data citation– Adding data to your

resume

Data Management Framework*

• Institutional policies and procedures• IT infrastructure

(hardware & software)• Support services

(people & advice)• Managing metadata

*www.ands.org.au/datamanagement/overview.html

Ref: http://library.ucf.edu/scholarlycommunication/ResearchLifecycleUCF.php

Research Data Repositories

Software engineers are the key enablers

Software is embedded inthe research data lifecycle

Software

How about your research data?

Research data in computer science

Storage

Infrastructure

What is missing?

Majority of Australian universities have no domain specific data curation solution to support researchers in computer science and computer engineering.

Roadmap for future work

• Formal approach to data management in Computer Science and Software Engineering (CS & SE)

Research

• National/international data management infrastructure for CS & SEInfrastructure

• Building the culture of data citationPolicy and Practice

Research Problem

Formal approach (domain-based method) to data management in software engineering

Opportunity:collaborative research

Infrastructure Gap

• National/international infrastructure for data management in computer science and software engineering